A long overdue update

I would like to say that many exciting things have happened in the last two weeks but I can't... However, I will bring you, my dear readers, up to date with a few select happenings.

As I said I was forced to move to a new apartment and in with two other teachers. I lost the tranquility of living alone as well as my good internet connection and now have to suffer with an inconsistent wi-fi connection. My new apartment is about an hour and 15 minutes from both of the schools I teach at so, obviously, I'm not excited about that; it is a nicer apartment, however.

After my move I finally went to see the Tretyakov Gallery with a friend of mine. We decided not to rush through so we only looked at the icon galleries and the church. I had read that there was a church in the gallery but I though it just meant a part of the gallery that is set up like a church but I was wrong. It turns out that there was a church right next to the gallery which became part of the gallery when it was re-opened. It is a bona-fide church with several priests and daily services (in fact a wedding was taking place when we went in). So we spent about 2 or 3 hours at the gallery and I saw the originals of many icons which I have seen in books and prints, including, of course, the Trinity and Vladimir icon's of Rubloff.

I was put in contact with a man who was looking for an English speaker to tutor his two children so last Saturday I tried that out. This family lives in an exclusive little subdivision outside of Moscow so a car was sent to pick me up for the hour trip. On the way I actually spotted the indoor ski hill which is being built in Moscow (see here). So when I arrived I had breakfast with the children (ages 4 and 7), their father and someone who I had assumed to be their mother (turns out it was their nanny). I was told that I would just be playing with the children and trying to speak English with them so that's what we did while playing with some Lego sets. We next spent some time playing outside in the snow. I was at a loss of what to actually do as I originally thought that there was only one child and that he already spoke English but just needed practice. After a joyous time in the fresh snow we returned to have lunch (where I met the children's real mother) after which I was driven back to Moscow.

Last week was another week of teaching... I started a new class which will be a challenge. That's all I'm going to say about that.

We went again yesterday to the Tretyakov to continue where we left off and saw about 20 rooms (only 30 or 40 more to go). I saw many famous paintings including the ubiquitous ones of Dostoyevsky and Pushkin.

In other news Moscow has been under snow for about 2 weeks but in the last few days it has warmed up a bit so a lot has melted creating many dirty and unattractive streets.

St. Basil's in the snow.

The Kremlin in the snow:















St. Tatiana's, where I have been going to services.

Relocation

I was forced to abandon my apartment last Friday so I just now was reconnected to the interweb so I will soon have a comprehensive update...

Of pizza deliveries and dances

So I came home the other day and when I was entering my building a pizza delivery man yelled at me asking about where the first building was...I told him that it was farther down the road... When I went in I realized that I don't even know where I live...

I bought some cucumbers and tomatoes at my local food market the other day. When the transaction was finished and I took my produce and money and the vendor smiled and said "thank you"...I just looked at her and smiled... I went back to the same place today and the woman talked to me a little more asking me where I was from and what I was doing in Moscow. She then told her fellow vendor how and American has come and bought from her twice...

I went last Sunday to nice little church where an English friend attends called St. Antipas; it even had a trapeza afterwards like good ole American churches.

Today we had the second major snow fall of the year; there is something like an inch or inch and a half on the ground.

On Sunday night MP had its second annual Russian Ball which I attended: (there are not too many pictures as I was "dancing" most of the time) We danced various traditional dances, some waltzes and some other that I don't remember.






Yes, even the whigs were in attendance.

Of hotels and Old believers

Even in Moscow Holiday Inn is leavin' the light on for ya'.




There are also people in Moscow who like such strange decor in/on their car.


So that Gabe would be jealous I stopped by this Old Believer (I say "Old Believer" and not "Old Rite" specifically because they're not in communion.) church today. There happened to be a service going on at the time so we stood for a while. There were about 4 women in attendance and then 3 or 4 women singing at the kliros. The singing (which they didn't do very much of at a canon was being read) sounded like a mix between Russian and Greek chant. The church inside was mostly frescoed but there were a lot of smaller, about 8x10, icons hanging on the walls and there were no electric lights.

Videos from folk concert

Here are some videos from a folk concert on the 4th.

The Lavra (Sergeev-Posad)

Went today to the Lavra with some friends to venerate the relics of St. Sergei. As it was a holiday there were many people there for the same reason so we had to stand in line (most of the time in the snowy weather) for about 40 minutes. After I had venerated the relics my friends were leaving out another exit and I didn't know what that meant but it turned out that they were letting us into another reliquary. So in this lower church and reliquary there were more relics of St. Sergei and relics of other saints of the Lavra as well as a whole part of the arm of St. Stephen the first martyr and many other relics (I simply can't remember all of them). These were the biggest relics that I've ever seen as usually they are the tiny particles in cases. (Of course God can work miracles through all alike...) We had a dinner in the monastery trapeza and then found out that a friend who works at the monastery was having a birthday party at the moment so we joined and spent some time singing songs and conversing.

The pilgrims in the wonderful snow.





We celebrated a birthday under this icon of St. Sergei.
The monastery trapeza's very own cup.

Major update

At long last I have my own internet connection so I have uploaded all the pictures from the past month. However, I posted them somewhere else as to not have to upload each picture individually; in short, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/hazzard.duke

02-03.11.07: So I met a friend of a friend before MP today who refused to believe at first that I’m not Russian and don’t have parents or grandparents who are Russian... Later they said that I look siberian...

I met a friend of a different friend, an Englishman who is here teaching English and has been here a year and some months. He encouraged me concerning teaching as he’s had a very similar situation.

I met with my boss again yesterday and they decided to change my schedule as another is leaving - so I’m getting one of their old classes and one of my roommate’s classes whereas he is getting one of my classes (and my best class at that...I get his worst class in exchange). They’re also making me teach at a company early in the morning two days a week and another individual student.

So I stopped by a church which was never closed during commie times near where I have my individual student today. It had a lot of late 19th century icons which weren’t particularly wonderful but it also had some older icons that were very nice; plus all the woodwork was very nice. I was able to venerate relics of the Three Hierarchs, the 40 martyr’s of Sebaste, St. Seraphim and the Cross. At one point while venerating an icon I almost broke my nose and threw my neck out as the glass was a little to polished...

Went to the Detskii Dom again today for a few hours and played some games with the children.